(Role: Visual Design Lead: 2 People. Principle Designer.)

When the Options Industry Council approached Roundarch with an RFP to redesign and rethink their web-based Options Awareness and Education presence I jumped at the opportunity. Even though this would be a pitch, and thus time would be tight, I relished the opportunity to design a web site and take a break from all of the Flex RIAs I have been doing.

An option is, “a contract to buy or sell a specific financial product officially known as the option’s underlying instrument or underlying interest.” The crux of this concept was to take the dead-feeling content the OIC currently had and add life to it. We didn’t want to recreate their existing library. We wanted to build them a tool. One that through social mechanisms and personalization would be ever-fresh and always relevant.

The design strategy began by cultivating a visual language for each of their three main user groups so that once authenticated, the site would assume the user role’s identity and only offer information relevant to them. We then thought about how we could build an adaptive curriculum that would suggest new and relevant lessons based on what the user has completed and allow the user to share lesson-plans with their peers. Lastly we added the ability for the user to personalize their experience through the concept of “My Folder” and “My Curriculum”.